Open Access DNA, Rna and Amino Acid Sequences: The Consequences and Solutions for the International Regulation of Access and Benefit Sharing

Lawson, Charles; Rourke, Michelle

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2848136

Cited by 11 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The transformative effect of bioinformatics on many biological questions owes much to open‐access data. A key decision was made in the early 1980s to operate three international repositories for the storage of nucleotide sequences, that is: GenBank at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) in the USA, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory – EMBL Data Library (today the European Nucleotide Archive), and the DNA Database of Japan (DDBJ) (Lawson & Rourke, ). This unprecedented degree of collaboration among members of the international research community paved the way for persuading the leading scientific journals to require data publication as a precondition of article publication.…”

Section: The Challenges That Must Be Overcome To Realise Emerging Randdmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture: opportunities and challenges emerging from the science and information technology revolution

et al. 2018

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Contents Summary1407I.Introduction1408II.Technological advances and their utility for gene banks and breeding, and longer‐term contributions to SDGs1408III.The challenges that must be overcome to realise emerging R&D opportunities1410IV.Renewed governance structures for PGR (and related big data)1413V.Access and benefit sharing and big data1416VI.Conclusion1417Acknowledgements1417ORCID1417References1417 Summary Over the last decade, there has been an ongoing revolution in the exploration, manipulation and synthesis of biological systems, through the development of new technologies that generate, analyse and exploit big data. Users of Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) can potentially leverage these capacities to significantly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their efforts to conserve, discover and utilise novel qualities in PGR, and help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This review advances the discussion on these emerging opportunities and discusses how taking advantage of them will require data integration and synthesis across disciplinary, organisational and international boundaries, and the formation of multi‐disciplinary, international partnerships. We explore some of the institutional and policy challenges that these efforts will face, particularly how these new technologies may influence the structure and role of research for sustainable development, ownership of resources, and access and benefit sharing. We discuss potential responses to political and institutional challenges, ranging from options for enhanced structure and governance of research discovery platforms to internationally brokered benefit‐sharing agreements, and identify a set of broad principles that could guide the global community as it seeks or considers solutions.

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Section: The Challenges That Must Be Overcome To Realise Emerging Randdmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture: opportunities and challenges emerging from the science and information technology revolution

et al. 2018

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“…This tenet is reflected more broadly in the CBD, Nagoya Protocol, Plant Treaty, and the PIP Framework mechanisms to share and disclose information (CBD: Art 18.3; Nagoya Protocol: Art 14.1; Plant Treaty: Art 17; PIP Framework: Art 5.2.2). Importantly, however, a closer assessment of the open access to DNA, RNA, and protein sequences does show that modern research science is amenable to some restrictions, with evolving practices in sharing DNA, RNA, and protein sequences expressly accepting restrictions where credit and attribution are sought by scientists or privacy protections are necessary (see Lawson & Rourke, , pp. 108–111).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This has been important both to verify and confirm the science concepts and to build on those concepts so that others can further develop those concepts, so building “by standing on the shoulder of giants” (Turnbull, , p. 416). The example of the attempts over time to confine the disclosure and sharing of DNA, RNA, and protein sequences has proven impossible (see Lawson & Rourke, ). The modern research science tenet has effectively demanded that DNA, RNA, and protein sequences be made available and accessible.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The future of information under the CBD, Nagoya Protocol, Plant Treaty, and PIP Framework

Lawson

Humphries

Rourke

2019

World Intellectual Property

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The United Nations’ Convention of Biological Diversity (and the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations’ International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and the World Health Organisation of the United Nations’ (WHO) Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework all set out schemes for access and benefit sharing (ABS) some biological materials. This article addresses the apparent conflict between the general obligations in these agreements to disclose and exchange information and dealing with information as a resource derivative within the ABS transaction. This latter dealing is a closed domain for information under the ABS schemes where information is a resource derivative that is a part of the ABS transaction. Treating information as a resource derivative within the ABS transaction is likely to impose unnecessary and inefficient burdens on ABS transactions. After reviewing the recent developments, the article postulates a risk framework for valuing information as a part of the ABS transaction, or alternatively, a charge, tax, or levy to externalize the costs so that information remains available to be disclosed and exchanged promoting more and better science and research.

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“…For instance, when scoring stakeholders’ views on DSI in the light of ABS criterion N°7 (scientific research on GR), we have utilized much of the related literature ( Vogel, 2011 ; Bagley and Rai, 2013 ; Lawson and Rourke, 2016 ; Devi and Pisupati, 2018 ; Wynberg and Laird, 2018 ; Flach et al, 2019 ; Geary and Bubela, 2019 ; Watanabe, 2019 ) to fine-tune our conclusions about how regulating DSI in the same manner as GR would negatively impact scientific research activities including those conducted in provider countries. The fact is that providing access in a timely manner would be challenging and track and trace would be inefficient for both the users and providers.…”

Section: Aim Of This Paper and Methodology Appliedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing Regulatory Frameworks for Access to Genetic Resources: A Multi-Stakeholder Multi-Criteria Approach

Sirakaya

Brucker

Vanagt³

2020

Front. Genet.

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In this paper we conduct a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) from a multiple stakeholder point of view for the design of access and benefit sharing (ABS) agreements concerning genetic resources, in particular regarding the access component of such agreements. We start by analyzing the objectives defined by international law (viz. the Convention on Biodiversity and the Nagoya Protocol) that every party (i.e., all United Nations member states, except the United States) must strive to attain when developing national legislation on ABS. As countries have a certain degree of freedom concerning the way and the extent to which they need to integrate these objectives into their national frameworks and since stakeholders attach different levels of importance to these objectives, such an MCA will help identify those options that command the highest value added from the community of stakeholders. Consequently, those options are expected to hold the highest potential for successful implementation. The MCA performed in this paper is based on Saaty’s analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and starts from the objectives (i.e., criteria) enshrined in international law, and then proceeds by assessing the relative importance of these criteria from the point of view of four different stakeholder groups (industrial users, academic users, collections and provider countries). The alternatives to be evaluated in the MCA are based upon options discussed qualitatively in our previous study published in Frontiers in Plant Science (2019b). These options are now transformed into “design parameters” and are evaluated in terms of their contribution to stakeholder criteria. This evaluation is now performed in a quantitative way using MCA and is based on previous qualitative discussions with stakeholders that have been reported qualitatively in our previous paper in Frontiers in Plant Science referred to above. The final result of our MCA consists of pointing out which design parameters regarding access obtain the highest priority from the community of stakeholders and hence need to be present in national regulatory frameworks on ABS that will be implemented by member states. It is our intention to undertake similar research for the Benefit Sharing component of ABS agreements in the future.

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Open Access DNA, Rna and Amino Acid Sequences: The Consequences and Solutions for the International Regulation of Access and Benefit Sharing

Cited by 11 publications

References 19 publications

Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture: opportunities and challenges emerging from the science and information technology revolution

Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture: opportunities and challenges emerging from the science and information technology revolution

The future of information under the CBD, Nagoya Protocol, Plant Treaty, and PIP Framework

Designing Regulatory Frameworks for Access to Genetic Resources: A Multi-Stakeholder Multi-Criteria Approach

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